Here is an article for you to read from the Texas Standard, a news organization local to these parts with sharp insight and often featured daily information on public radio. It discusses how the behaviors of players back then are serving as a predictive precursor to human behavior in pandemic situations.
World-of-Warcraft was a very popular game – one of the first “MMOG’s” and those who played it back then were pioneers in the craft, my son being one of them. Being that he had lots of health issues, his world shifted in his last years of life to computer gaming – or station gaming, but as those evolved, “heavily online”. In 2003-2005, as World-of-Warcraft overtook some other popular games that evolved over time – Dungeons and Dragons, Doom, etc. the community grew for the online gaming to what is now, today one of the largest, if not the largest entertainment sub-verticals in that industry, ahead of movies, television, and streaming service programming.
The byline quoted below, is by their reporter, Kristen Cabrera who posted the article, and the link leads to the Texas Standard website – the audio content in the player below, has the whole interview with Omar Gallega, the Texas Standard Tech Editor.
“In 2005, a highly contagious disease spread within the fictional world of the massive, multiplayer online game. Scientists later studied players’ reactions to understand how humans might react in a real-world scenario. “
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/what-we-can-learn-about-epidemics-from-the-world-of-warcraft-online-game/
To the point related to our current pandemic and how WOW in 2005, listen to this segment on The Texas Standard…all rights reserved to that organization.
Texas Standard. A service of the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin
The picture below is of Rob’s character, Jarulf and his pet, Ham.
As we go through this experience, the simulation of this experience fifteen-years ago, we can check to see how that parallels what is transpiring. We cannot actually predict this behavior – too many triggers, and too much change that cannot be foretold.
14-March-2020
